1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a subframe assembly for a vehicle, including a subframe mounted at a rear portion of a vehicle body frame through a plurality of support portions, and at least a fuel tank and a rear suspension which are supported on the subframe.
2. Description of Relevant Art
There is a known subframe assembly for a vehicle, which is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 8643/93. By mounting the subframe assembly previously subassembled on the vehicle body frame such as described in the Laid-open Application, the assembling of parts on the subframe can be facilitated to enhance the working efficiency.
Engines of different displacements may be often mounted in the same vehicle body frame, and in such a case, it is difficult to increase the volume of the fuel tank without changing the vehicle body frame. In addition, the known subframe assembly has a problem that since the rear differential is disposed below the fuel tank, it is necessary to form a recess for accommodating the rear differential in a lower surface of the fuel tank and as a result, it is difficult to sufficiently insure the volume of the fuel tank.
To overcome such disadvantages, it is conceived that the front portion of the fuel tank be extended to overhang forwardly from a front end of the subframe to increase the volume of the fuel tank. However, this causes the position of the gravity center of the subframe assembly to be displaced forwardly, resulting not only in a problem that when the subframe assembly is placed onto a pallet to flow on a conveyor in an assembling line, the stability of the subframe assembly is deteriorated, but also in a problem that when the subframe assembly is mounted on the vehicle body frame through a plurality of rubber bush mounts, the load applied to the rubber bush mounts is not uniform which adversely affects the vibration-proofing property of the mounts.